On Dec 1, 2010, at 4:29 PM, richardsan wrote: > assange...criminal or whistleblower hero? > i lean more towards the later, for sure. it doesn't bode well for him. > the doofusy looks educated and elite diplomats and politicians put on, when > they get caught "being hooman" is worth watching their wriggling... he > shouldn't be prosecuted for anything related to the data dumps...if he's > proved guilty for the crimes he's accused of, that's ok too.
Light needs to be shined under the rocks in a democracy or it rots. Far too much of what is done in our names is done in secret, and this makes it easy to lie to us. Assange's cooperated with the US government and offered prior access (with the right of redaction) to the materials he's published, and frankly this stuff is all either diplomatic gossip or blindingly obvious. (Gee, China might not react negatively to a stable, unified Korea? What, you think they'd be UPSET about not having a nuclear-armed warmongering nutcase and a million starving refugees on their southern border, while letting the West pick up the tab for reunification? You got chocolate in my peanut butter! Silvio Berlusconi is a party-mad horndog? This fact was a major issue of his last election campaign. Trumpeted by HIS campaign. "Vote for the Virile One" The fat Sunni princelings of the Arabian peninsula will gladly fight the Shiite Iranians to the last Israeli and American soldier? Hoocoodaknowed?) More interesting are some of the older ones, like the senior diplomat in 1985 talking about the Iranians and their 'mysterious persian ways' in language better suited for the most jingoistic 19th century paternalistic British colonialist discussing the cultural shortcomings of those wogs and their need for firm British hand to bring them to a civilized life. Sweet zombie Jesus on a stick, if THAT'S the way we've approached the Iranians, no WONDER we haven't gotten anything done! We have the guy who leaked the stuff in custody, and it raises a LOT of interesting questions...such as: this was a guy working in Baghdad..how the HELL was he able to access such a trove of State Department stuff? Assange is not an American citizen, he published this material outside of the country, there is no crime he's committed, no matter how fervently some would wish to do so. -- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "StrataList-OT" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/stratalist-ot?hl=en.
